Ecatepec, (Spanish[ekateˈpek](help·info) once officially Ecatepec de Morelos, is a city and municipality in the State of Mexico. Both are usually known simply as "Ecatepec". The city is practically co-extensive with the municipality, with the city's 2005 population of 1,687,549 being 99.9% of the total municipal population of 1,688,258.[2] The provisional population at the 2010 Census was 1,658,806. The city forms the most populous suburb of Mexico City (Ciudad de México) and the fifteenth suburb in the world in population. It is also Mexico's most populous municipality after Iztapalapa, Mexico City.[3]

The location of the municipality is north of the Mexico City, and is located in the low extreme geographical coordinates of Greenwich, north latitude 19º29'23" minimum, 19º40'28" maximum, west longitude 98°58'30" minimum, 99°08'35" maximum.[5]

75% of Ecatepec de Morelos municipality is urbanized, on this territory there are no big animals; in the highlands of Sierra de Guadalupe live principally small mammals such as mouse, rabbit, gray squirrel, bat and gopher, birds, such as cenzontle and sparrow. The flora in Sierra de Guadalupe is represented by oyamel pines, oaks, ocote pines, century plants, prickly pears, zacatón (mountain grass) and other.[7]

Ecatepec was considered an "República de Indios" (Indian Republic) 1560, allowing the village to maintain a certain amount of autonomy and keeping the succession of tlatoanis or chiefs. However, in the first part of the 17th century, this was changed to a mayorship, with the Spanish administrating, along with the communities of Zumpango and Xalostoc.[6]

The municipality was officially created on October 13, 1874.[4] On October 1, 1877, San Cristóbal Ecatepec was declared a village and "de Morelos" was added to its name.[6]

The national hero José María Morelos y Pavón was executed in Ecatepec in 1815 by the Spanish during the Mexican War of Independence. The house in which he was executed is now the Museo Casa de Morelos (Museum House of Morelos). Ecatepec was declared a city on December 1, 1980.[4]

In April 1995, the remains of a mammoth were found in Colonia Ejidos de San Cristóbal, where the ancient lakes of Xaltocan-Ecatepec and Texcoco came together and where the Aztecs build a dam to keep the fresh and salty waters separate. The bones have been tentatively dated to around 10,500 years B.C.[6]

Ecatepec de Morelos had a 2010 census population of 1,656,107 inhabitants, which makes it the most populous municipality in the nation [1], as well as in the state.

In February 2016, Pope Francis celebrated Mass in the city in front of a crowd of 300,000. The Pope's message was one of encouragement and opposition to the violence and drug trade that permeates the region.[9]

Almost all of the population (99.934%) lives in its one urban locality, Ecatepec de Morelos, the most populous locality (city) in Mexico except for the Iztapalapa Borough of Mexico City. There are also six rural localities (cities, towns, and villages) in the municipality, half of which reported no population in the 2010 census:[10]

In 2016, a new transportation system was introduced to Ecatepec's inhabitants: Mexicable. This project is a cable car which main purpose is to help people displace faster (contrary to most cable cars which have tourists as their main users), specially in areas with complicated geography. The idea was originally developed in the South Americas, with Colombia being the first country to add a cable car system, called Metrocable, as part of their metro. The Mexicable, the first cable car constructed in Mexico as a public transport, has a length of almost 5 kilometres (3 miles), 190 cars and it runs the entire line in about 17 minutes.[15]